Sunday, October 09, 2011

A message from Shane Bauer: one of the three Americans arrested by Iranian government

Here is a message I received from Shane Bauer (my response follows below): "Dear As’ad,

I have to say that I am disappointed. Not only was you class
one of my favorite’s at UCB, but I even talked up your blog to Josh in
prison, and frequently pointed people to it before our arrest.

You say
you “heard” that Josh Fattal is an Israeli. Where did you hear this patently
false information? Josh is Jewish, not Israeli. People have also said that I,
a corn-fed boy from rural Minnesota, am Jewish.
Sarah too. We are
not.

The Iranian prosecutor said the same things. The same person who
said we were part of an “elaborate Israeli-American conspiracy to
undermine Iran” without a single piece of evidence?

But I know you
aren’t supportive of what you call the “lousy” Iranian government. Your doubt
about our intentions doesn’t mean that you love the Iranian government. (I’m
reminded of a hate email I just received: “Going back to Syria soon? Going to
kiss Assad's ass?” Why would someone assume that if I lived in Syria that I
love Assad?) Why do people assume that because Josh is Jewish, he is Israeli
and hence involved in some kind of conspiracy? Josh is NOT Israeli.
Josh’s father is Israeli. Josh is American.

In Iran, there was never
any evidence put forth against us. There was no effort to. The whole case
against Josh (to call it a “case” is to batter the English language. The
trial I’m talking about was the worst
kind of sinister theater) was based on
the fact that he is Jewish. Nothing more. There was never any evidence put
forth against us. There was no effort to.

Your recent comments rub me
in a similar way. I know you sift through a lot of media and don’t
double-check everything you hear and honestly, if I heard our story I would
have been suspicious too. But
I’d like to think I would have looked into it a
bit before I start writing about it publicly.

But most importantly,
it’s also disappointing to see that you were so quick to have a typical
knee-jerk politicized reaction: “How would have the US reacted if three
Iranian hikers were found along the
Canadian-US border?” The answer to this
question is pretty clear, but that’s not the point. The most salient feature
about your class at UCB to me is how much effort you put into discouraging
people from feeling like they needed to excuse oppression because they were
opposed to the oppression of the other side. Why not condemn both, you would
say? Just because the US engages in “imperialist feminism” (I believe
that was the term), that’s not a reason to apologize for the oppression
of women in the Middle East, you would say.

And just because the US
government has been on a path of destruction in the Middle East for the past
60-70 years, that’s not a reason to excuse the Iranian government for
arresting some people they shouldn’t have.

Iran arrested the wrong
people and they knew it all along. Neither our guards nor our investigators
would go so far as to call us spies. None of us are spies. We are the
opposite of spies. I have studied Arabic
(which I speak fluently) and have
spent years in the Arab world with the purpose of exposing injustice,
especially but not exclusively the injustices of the US government. Before
our arrest, I published a
piece in the Nation about a previously unknown US
backed death squad titled “Iraq’s New Death Squad” and another in Mother
Jones magazine called “Sheikh Down” about US military corruption and use of
militias in Iraq. Check these out if you need some evidence of our integrity.
I suppose you could see these investigative pieces as part of an elaborate
cover up like the Iranians claimed they were, but I’m sure
you wont.

I
sincerely hope you will change your position about us and explain your
mistake on your blog. If you can’t, I would like to know why. And I insist
that you correct your factual errors. Josh is not Israeli.
Josh is a Jew and
Josh is an anti-Zionist.

The voices of nuanced analysis are sadly few,
especially in this county. You have been one of those voices to me. I hope
you can see your mistake and correct it.

Sincerely,

Shane Bauer"

My response: Dear Shane, First, as I explained, I dd not know what happened but was skeptical of the early claim of "hiking" along the border. Although, I have come to know that some of my students, especially from UC, Berkeley do have an adventurist spirit and that can be admirable. Secondly, I, of course, don't trust the Iranian regime and treat its claims with skepticism. Three, yes, the lousy Iranian regime and lousy Arab regimes often persecute people under the pretext of fighting an American-Israeli plot. But that does not mean that there is no American-Israeli plot in the region. It seems to me that, in this day and age, to deny the existence of this plot is to display extreme naivite or worse. Fourthly, I did not like your discussion about the Jewishness of Fattal. I never ever brought up his religious affiliation, and as you know, this matter is never relevant to me. This is not the issue, for me, and I dont recall that it was even brought up by the lousy Iranian regime. Sixthly, yes, I sometimes am guilty of impulsive and thoughtless reactions especially when it comes to something that arouses my suspicion regarding an Israeli hand. But it was the Israeli press which reported that the Israeli media (and by default the US media) deliberately covered up the Israeli connection of Fattal (or the Israeli citizenship of his father). That did arouse my suspicions and that really provoked my statement. Finally, I don't know the purpose of the trip and I am often guilty of being protective of and defensive about people who were my students. Your letter did sound sincere, and I have no problem in extending an apology to you if my reaction (which did not in any way maintain guilt) was unfair to you or even to your colleagues.

Comic by Terry Furry, reproduced from "Heard the One About the Funny Leftist?" by Cris Thompson, East Bay Express

As'ad's Bio

As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. His favorite food is fried eggplants.

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